The Day Everything Owned Cloud
by Sephulbadis
Summary: The title pretty much says it all. A single 24hour slice of Cloud's life, in which he is owned by everything from breakfast to Fenrir to Reno to waitresses in pasties, and then owned a few more times. Never gets a break, does he?
1. Starting the Day Off Right

_dedicated with love to maple syrup _

**1. Breakfast Owns Cloud**

It's pancakes again. The cakes themselves aren't exactly bad, but when he looks down at the stack of them Tifa covered in a thick glistening coat of _tree blood_, something in his gut cringes. Then he looks up, across the table, and there's Tifa looking so proud of herself for not burning any of them. She looks hopeful. She's smiling, and she's watching him. Watching him not eating the breakfast she got up early to make.

He picks up his fork.

**2. The Front Door Owns Cloud**

He doesn't even see the web on his way out the door, distracted by an uneasy stomach full of breakfast. It stretches and snaps free of the frame right across his face, and after he finishes scraping it away he's sure he feels something crawling around in his hair. Tifa promises him there's nothing there. He feels it anyway.

**3. Fenrir Owns Cloud**

It's just a standard parcel delivery in Edge, no rough terrain or unusual conditions. There's an odd note in the bike's engine, though, a whine that wasn't there before. Less than half a kilometer from the destination, it chokes and drifts to a slow stop leaking hot white smoke out the sides. Every part of his motorcycle is up-to-date on its maintenance, leaving him only one reasonable conclusion: Fenrir is pissed at him.

**4. Bureaucracy Owns Cloud**

"I had to walk," Cloud explains. "My bike broke down."

"I don't care if you had to save the world three times on your way here," snaps the clerk at Ju-Gei Imports. "These tax documents had to be postmarked by nine. Do you know how much you being late is going to cost this company?"

"No, sir."

"More than you're worth. I'm not paying a damn thing for this delivery."

"Sorry, sir."

**5. The Coffee Machine Owns Cloud**

There's a garage not too far from Ju-Gei Imports, close enough to push Fenris to. The mechanic says it won't take too long, why doesn't he just have a seat and get some coffee in the waiting room?

The waiting room has two chairs, an end table, and three old magazines about gunblades. There's a coffee machine against one wall. Cloud puts in his one-gil coin, presses the button for extra milk, and waits. The cup never drops.

**6. Fenrir Owns Cloud, Again**

"You're pretty lucky I had the part on hand," the mechanic says, totalling up sums on a scrap of paper. "This would be even more expensive if I had to order it in."

"Your coffee machine's broken," Cloud tells him.

"Looks like eight hundred gil for parts, another hundred and fifty for labor, fifty for the diagnostic. One thousand gil, even."

Cloud blinks. "I don't have that much on me."

"Better find somebody who does, then. The guy from the scrap yard comes at one."

**7. Reno Owns Cloud**

He's having ramen at the stand next door to the garage when Cloud walks out, almost like he planned it that way. "Hey!" Reno says, waving him over. "What shit on you?"

Cloud explains the situation.

"Damn," Reno says. "Sure, I can lend you some. With the usual terms, you know."

Cloud asks what the usual terms are, even though he's pretty sure he knows already.

"The _usual_," Reno says, smirking. He does that thing with his tongue.

Reluctantly, Cloud accepts.

**8. Cloud's Cellphone Owns Cloud**

"I _said_, are there any new delivery orders? I just finished the one to Edge."

"Hello? Are you still there?"

"I'm still here. Look, I need to know if anyone else called—"

"Cloud, I can barely hear you. Speak up!"

"I'm practically standing under a phone tower, Tifa, something must be wrong with your phone."

"What? Hello?"

The connection goes dead. Cloud looks down at his phone, and sees the tiny battery icon blink twice before the screen flickers out.

**9. Lunch Owns Cloud**

It's not like he's going to be getting another delivery order with his phone dead, so he stops for lunch. Nothing fancy: just a place that does steamed buns with curry filling. He buys two. The first one he bites into is right out of the steamer, and the curry inside is still too hot.

He lets it cool before he eats the rest, but it all just tastes like his burnt mouth.

**10. Reno Owns Cloud, Again**

"There you are," Tifa says as he walks back into the Seventh Heaven. "I was worried."

"Everything's fine," Cloud says. "Just got held up a bit."

"I'm glad," says Tifa, and Cloud can tell she means it. "There was another call while you were out, though. Can you do something this afternoon?"

"Sure. Who for?"

"Reno. He says he needs you to take care of a, um, a very sensitive package."

"…"

"He said you owed him."

"…fine."


	2. This Time It's Personal

The further adventures of an unremarkable day in the life of Cloud Strife, Delivery Boy. Enjoy!

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**1. Reno Continues to Own Cloud**

After they're finished, Reno tells him he actually does have something he wants Cloud to deliver. Cloud nearly hits him.

"President's office," Reno says. "Just a few floors up."

"I don't have time," Cloud says. He's lying. He knows Reno can tell.

"Here." Reno scribbles something on official stationery, stuffs it into an envelope, and holds it out until Cloud takes it. "You know where the elevator is."

**2. Bureaucracy Owns Cloud, Again**

There's the usual security procedure before he's allowed into Rufus Shinra's office; concealed weapons check, identity documents, inspection of delivered goods. Cloud knows the drill.

The concealed weapons check becomes uncomfortably personal at a few points, and the guard smiles the entire time.

His papers are in order. The secretary puts Reno's note back in the envelope, hands it to him, and waves him through the door. "Have fun," she says. She's smiling too.

**3. Rufus Shinra Owns Cloud**

"Thoughtful, but it isn't my birthday," says Rufus, reading the message. "Or any other holiday, for that matter."

Cloud stands in front of the desk, waiting. This isn't going to go well. It's all his fault, he knows that, but somehow he can't remember why.

Rufus looks thoughtful. He collects folders of documents from his desk, settles them into a drawer, and adjusts the positions of a few paperweights.

"If you would bend over _this_ side, please," he says, and pats the glossy teak surface.

**4. Rufus Shinra So Owns Cloud**

Rufus later reflects, as the door closes behind Cloud, that he hadn't actually expected him to do it. Interesting.

**5. Cid Refrains From Owning Cloud**

Cid says 'hey, kid' and smacks him hard on the back and tells him to sit the hell down when Cloud walks back into the Seventh Heaven. That's all he does. Cloud fights the urge to kiss him out of pure gratitude.

"Came in town for a supply run," Cid explains. "Shit, look at you. You look like you need a drink."

Cloud agrees that yes, he needs a drink.

"Not here, though," Cid says. "Nothing wrong with here, of course, but there's this place on the edge of town. Good strong drinks."

Tifa comes out of the stockroom in back. "You've never complained before," she says, but she's smiling. "What do they have that I don't?"

"Bar girls in pasties with tassels on 'em," Cid says.

Cloud goes with Cid; Cid hasn't tried to do anything to him, and he wants to savor the experience while it lasts.

**6. Cid Owns Cloud**

It doesn't take long for Cid to start in on the co-pilot routine with one of the girls, and before long he's surrounded by a whole knot of them and they're laughing and smiling and he's promised them all flying lessons and when one of them winks and asks Cloud if he's a pilot too, all he can do is shake his head and move to another table.

**7. A Tasty Junon Lager Owns Cloud**

He's tired and drunk and he knows she's just a bar girl, but when she leans over to dangle her tassels in his face and the soft rope of light brown hair slips over one shoulder, he can't help it.

"I'm sorry," he says.

"Nothing to be sorry for, sweetie," she says, and flashes him a smile before setting his drink down.

"No," he insists. "I'm really sorry. About the thing. Death."

"Ah," she says. "Okay. Yeah."

"I didn't mean to," he tells her, reaching out a clumsy hand to touch.

Carefully, she picks his drink back up and empties it over his head. As she turns on her heel to go fetch a bouncer, Cloud can feel the beer fizz gently in his ears.

**8. Industrial Runoff Owns Cloud**

It's late. It's dark. It's cold. The puddle flooding most of the sidewalk is soaking through the back of his shirt and he simply doesn't care. There's been no rain for days. It's probably not even water.

**9. Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo Own Cloud, Except Not**

Motorcycles are coming. Big ones, like Fenrir. He's too drunk to move or give a damn.

"Tch," someone says. The bike engines stop. "Look."

Cloud clears his throat. "I don't care who you are," he says, enunciating with particularly special care. He wants people to understand this. "I don't care if I owe you or if you want me to deliver something or if you have a note or it's your birthday or ANYTHING. I don't care about that."

Three pairs of luminous blue-green eyes swing into view above him. He thinks there are three. Might be more. It doesn't matter.

"What I'm saying is," he says, and pauses a second to remember, "what I'm SAYING. Is."

All of the eyes blink in unison.

"Fuck me. Get it over with. Come on. Right now. I'm here."

Another blink.

"Well, there's no point now, is there?"

The eyes disappear, and he hears the bikes start up again and leave him there.

**10. Public Transit Owns Cloud**

In the morning, he has to ride the goddamn bus home.


End file.
